This time, I would like to talk again about the self and attachment as expressed in the Dhammapada.
“People worry and suffer over their children and wealth.
Yet when even one’s self does not belong to oneself, how could one’s children or wealth belong to oneself?”
The idea that children and wealth do not belong to us is relatively easy to understand. Children have their own lives, and wealth can eventually pass into someone else’s hands. There is no logical basis to state with absolute certainty that they are ours. The most difficult part to grasp is the assertion that “even one’s self does not belong to oneself.”
We usually live assuming that we belong to ourselves and to no one else. Here, however, the text calmly denies this, telling us that we do not even belong to ourselves.
Of course, this does not mean we belong to anyone else either. It simply means that the entity we call “myself” belongs to no one, including ourselves. What, then, is this “self that belongs to no one”?
The body and mind we recognize as “myself” are merely a temporary gathering of various elements right here and now. We simply trick ourselves into thinking, “This is me.” What we believe to be “ourselves” is actually not ours at all. And naturally, children and wealth belong to no one either.
There is truly no point in clinging to or desiring things that belong to no one. In modern thinking, people might feel that if something belongs to no one, they should claim it for themselves on a “first come, first served” basis. However, “belonging to no one” really means that it is inherently impossible to make it anyone’s property.
Today, conflicts are intensifying not only over land and territorial waters, but also over the Moon, Mars, and outer space. When people try to claim what belongs to no one as their own, they have no choice but to defend it with armed force so it is not stolen. In this way, new conflicts continue to be born.
If we could only keep in mind that “nothing is truly ours,” I believe we could lead a much more peaceful life.